Our final port before ending our spring Mediterranean cruise this past spring was Mykonos, considered to be the most cosmopolitan of the Greek isles and long a favorite of the jet (or, more aptly, yacht) set. I looked forward to a little shopping, but I began my visit with a tour of the nearby island of Delos, which in its day outshone its modern-day neighbor. At its peak a thriving free port and financial and trading center of 30,000, today the island is home to just a handful of archaeologists. Boasting one of the most extensive excavations in the Mediterranean, Delos offered a fascinating look into the past.

I arrived via ferry early one morning, watching the shape of stone walls and remnants of granite and marble monuments come into view through a light mist. This barren island had no natural resources and no fresh water (except that which was caught and stored in an extensive system of wells, cisterns and aqueducts),

Well opening on Delos

Sub-floor water channels

Cistern

but from the 7th century B.C. until the 1st century it thrived as a religious sanctuary (said to be the birthplace of Apollo and Artemis) and commercial center of the Greek and Roman worlds. I walked through wide marketplaces, temple zones              

Terrace of the Lions

and residential “streets” of stone houses. Still visible were mosaic floors and wells, under-floor water channels and deep cisterns that collected and stored precious rainwater. It’s a very peaceful place, with bright red poppies, wildflowers and gracefully waving grasses growing up through the stones, but I could appreciate what a vibrant community this must have been. Eventually, sustained attacks by Roman enemies and pirates on this unfortified island brought about Delos’ decline, and its homes and temples were raided of their treasures and statuary, hauled off and used in later constructions on other islands. Still, the onsite museum offers a view of some that survived, and I found it a beautiful and interesting visit.

The afternoon brought my husband, Harry, and I back together in Mykonos town to explore the maze of narrow, vehicle-free streets and their abundance of shops and restaurants. It was here 33 years ago that my then-fiancé purchased a gold cross and chain for me while I studied back home, and we tried unsuccessfully to find the same shop. We did, however, come across one jeweler’s shop which offered unique and lovely work unlike anything we’d seen elsewhere. We came away with a beautiful pendant of gold and minute, enamel-painted mosaic tilework depicting the iconic dolphin leaping above the waves — a lovely treasure to remind me of this amazing voyage.

We also found our way into a dark, crowded shop (quite unlike most of the town’s bright, whitewashed emporiums) with a warren of rooms literally piled to the rafters with icons and religious items, some clearly very old. The shopkeeper, a middle-aged woman, told us this place had been in her family since at least her grandfather’s time. We enjoyed chatting with her and ultimately bought a few icons for family members.

I returned to our ship that evening with new mementos and scenes in my mind’s eye of an ancient civilization.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor